The paper prepared by the staff on IFRS 17 provides background to the discussion and considers the implications of exploring amendments to IFRS 17 on the effective date of IFRS 17 and on the fixed expiry date for the temporary exemption to IFRS 9. It then asks two questions of the Board:

• Given the Board plans to consider whether to explore amendments to IFRS 17, should the mandatory effective date of IFRS 17 be deferred by one year to 2022?
• If the Board were to defer the mandatory effective date of IFRS 17 by one year, should the fixed expiry date for the temporary exemption to IFRS 9 in IFRS 4 also be deferred to 2022?

The full agenda for the meeting can be found here. We will post any updates to the agenda, our comprehensive pre-meeting summaries as well as observer notes from the meeting on this page as they become available. The IFRS 17 paper is available here on the IASB website.

The TRG meeting has been rescheduled to allow additional time for submission of implementation questions and due to the limited number and narrow scope of submissions received since the September 2018 TRG meeting. For more information, see the press release on the IASB’s website.

The two bulletins cover (1) the classification criteria included in the DP and (2) the presentation and disclosure requirements included in the DP.

Both bulletins can be accessed through the press release on the EFRAG website.

Specifically, the project summary provides the following information:

• At a glance — a high-level look at why the board performed this research, summary of findings, and feedback and conclusions.
• Sources of information — sources used by the staff to conduct their research.
• Research findings — summaries on variety and complexity of terms and conditions of share-based payments, grant-date fair value measurement, and disclosures.
• Feedback on research findings and conclusions.
• Measurement models in IFRS 2.
• A look at what the information required by IFRS 2 tell users of financial statements.
• Implications of other projects and IFRS Standards to IFRS2.

For more information, see the press release and project summary on the IASB’s Web site.

Background

The materiality project arose as part of the IASB's Disclosure initiative started in 2012. The first document published as part of this project was the May 2013 feedback statement Discussion Forum – Financial Reporting Disclosure, which outlined the IASB's intention to consider a number of further initiatives, including a project on materiality, seeking to develop application guidance or educational material on materiality, with input from an advisory group.

A draft practice statement on materiality was published on 28 October 2015, however, subsequently it became clear that some of the proposed guidance needed to be authoritative to have the desired effect, so the project was split up into a part that would see a practice statement published and a part that was intended to result in amendments to IAS 1 and IAS 8. The finalised Practice Statement Making Materiality Judgements was published in September 2017 at the same time as an exposure draft ED/2017/6 Definition of Material (Proposed amendments to IAS 1 and IAS 8), which is being finalised today.

Changes and reasoning behind the changes

The changes in Definition of Material (Amendments to IAS 1 and IAS 8) all relate to a revised definition of 'material' which is quoted below from the final amendments:

Information is material if omitting, misstating or obscuring it could reasonably be expected to influence decisions that the primary users of general purpose financial statements make on the basis of those financial statements, which provide financial information about a specific reporting entity.

Three new aspects of the new definition should especially be noted:

• Obscuring. The existing definition only focused on omitting or misstating information, however, the Board concluded that obscuring material information with information that can be omitted can have a similar effect. Although the term obscuring is new in the definition, it was already part of IAS 1 (IAS 1.30A).
• Could reasonably be expected to influence. The existing definition referred to 'could influence' which the Board felt might be understood as requiring too much information as almost anything ‘could’ influence the decisions of some users even if the possibility is remote.
• Primary users. The existing definition referred only to 'users' which again the Board feared might be understood too broadly as requiring to consider all possible users of financial statements when deciding what information to disclose.

During redeliberations, the Board spent a lot of time on discussing what constitutes obscuring information. The amendments stress especially five ways material information can be obscured:

• if the language regarding a material item, transaction or other event is vague or unclear;
• if information regarding a material item, transaction or other event is scattered in different places in the financial statements;
• if dissimilar items, transactions or other events are inappropriately aggregated;
• if similar items, transactions or other events are inappropriately disaggregated; and
• if material information is hidden by immaterial information to the extent that it becomes unclear what information is material.

The new definition of material and the accompanying explanatory paragraphs are contained in IAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements. The defintion of material in IAS 8 Accounting Policies, Changes in Accounting Estimates and Errors has been replaced with a reference to IAS 1.

Effective date

The amendments are effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2020. Earlier application is permitted.

Additional information

Please click for:

• IASB press release (link to IASB website)
• IFRS in Focus — IASB amends the definition of material
• Our IAS Plus project page on Disclosure initiative — Materiality
• Our IAS Plus project page on Disclosure initiative — Overview
• updated EFRAG status report

Stakeholders are invited to participate in a survey that is designed to explore views of financial statements preparers and users with regard to the practices in financial reporting for Islamic financial institutions, thereby helping AAOIFI to better align its standards to the requirements of its present and prospective stakeholders and to keep them close to global best practices and free of confusion and errors.

Please click to access the survey on the AAOIFI website.

The podcast features discussions of the following topics in more detail (length of the podcast: ten minutes):

• IFRS 17 Insurance contracts
• Goodwill and impairment
• Primary financial statements
• Disclosure initiative
• Implementation

The podcast can be accessed through the press release on the IASB website. More information on the topics discussed is available through our comprehensive notes taken by Deloitte observers at the October IASB meeting.

The ASAF is comprised of 12 members and a non-voting chair. The new composition is as follows:

Please click for the press release on the IASB website.

Ms Tarca's speech was a tour d'horizon covering:

• development of a set of global standards for use in the world’s capital markets (2001–2005);
• the convergence program with the FASB and impact of the global financial crisis (2006–2009);
• working on the major standards (2010–2013); and
• implementation of the major standards and the better communication initiative (2014 onwards).

A transcript of her speech is available on the IASB website.

The IFRS convergence amendments reflect the following IASB amendments:

• Annual Improvements to IFRSs 2011 – 2013 Cycle (issued December 2013)
• Disclosure Initiative (Amendments to IAS 7) (issued January 2016)
• Transfers of Investment Property (Amendments to IAS 40) (issued December 2016)
• Annual Improvements to IFRSs 2014 – 2016 Cycle (issued December 2016)
• IFRIC 22 Foreign Currency Transactions and Advance Consideration (issued December 2016)
• Annual Improvements to IFRS Standards 2015 – 2017 Cycle (issued December 2017)
• Plan Amendment, Curtailment or Settlement (Amendments to IAS 19) (issued February 2018)

Please click to access the final amendments Improvements to IPSAS, 2018 on the IPSASB website.